The most important piece of equipment on the farm

Chris

Barron: We are grateful that you are joining us for another episode of the Ag View Pitch, as we know that your time is very valuable. Our team at Ag View Solutions is always here for you for any questions or comments that you may have. Please feel free to reach out to us at cbarron@agviewsolutions.com. And now here is your host, Chris Barron. Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch, and we're gonna have kind of a unique topic today, but as you can see probably probably by the title, we're going to talk about the most important piece of equipment on the farm. And so once you figure out what that is, um, hang with us, do not go anywhere. This is probably one of the most important podcasts that we've done to date with respect to your most important piece of equipment, but also the most valuable piece of equipment on the farm.

And so with that said, first I want to introduce our guest, Chris Dunn from Independence. Chris, how's it going?

Chris

Dunne: Good, how are you?

Chris

Barron: I'm doing good, I'm doing good. I appreciate you coming here today to be our resident expert and talk a little bit about our most important piece of equipment on the farm. And so I'm going to go ahead and tell everybody what that is here now, and that is your body, right? And so a lot of times people say, you know, oh well, we got to check the oil on the tractor, or we gotta You know, it's time for an oil change. It's already 5 hours over and the farmers are going crazy because, you know, that piece of machinery needs service, right? It needs to be taken care of. It needs to be power washed. It needs to be cleaned up. It needs the oil change. It needs transmission oil changed. You know, it needs the tires rotated on the semis or it needs the clutch adjusted or whatever. And we do a great job. On those pieces of equipment. Talk to me a little bit about, about your thought on that.

As far as farmers, you know, we really do a good job of maintenance on our, our actual farm equipment, our semis, our trucks, all that kind of stuff. But the body is a pretty important component, isn't it?

Chris

Dunne: It certainly is. I mean, and I appreciate having me on here today. Um, but yeah, I'll say that a lot of times when you get wrapped up in the day-to-day operations of any kind of a business, it's easy to neglect some of the fundamental things about yourself. Including your physical, emotional, and mental health. So, right, excited to be here today to share some things.

Chris

Barron: Well, let's introduce you. So you are the owner of Iowa Strength, and so Alyssa and I just started going to your gym here, what, uh, I don't know, a month ago?

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, about a month ago.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, so we're recording this in the middle of July, um, and again, we're going to talk about some super important stuff, so hang with this thing the whole way through. Um, You know, so you are the owner, so you're also an entrepreneur. So you've owned Iowa Strength, the, the, you know, it's basically a nutrition store and a gym, right? Correct. So, um, and 8 and a half years you said?

Chris

Dunne: Yep, that's right.

Chris

Barron: Okay, so let's get going here. So what we're going to talk about, and you and I talked a little bit ahead of time, we're going to kind of hit on the, the kind of the 6 key things that we need to pay attention to when we think about the most important piece of equipment on the farm, which is our body. Okay, so we're going to talk about safety, we're going to talk about nutrition, we're going to talk about sleep, we're going to talk about controlled exercise— not just carrying buckets of feed around or carrying a tractor weight or whatever, that doesn't count, and we'll talk about why— mental health, and longevity. Those are all things that I guarantee is very important to all of us. You know, um, you know, we, we all work pretty damn hard, I can tell you that. Yeah, you know, as farmers, that's what happens. And, you know, you were in a farm family, so you know.

But, um, you know, so let's, let's start at the top part of this. Um, so we start working hard on ourselves and not just in the business or on the business, but we need to start working on ourselves. So let's hit safety first. Um, any comments on safety, you know, or am I throwing you a wild card here?

Chris

Dunne: A little bit of wild card. Um, so I mean, safety-wise, so it's from my perspective anyways, not having a whole lot of farm experience—

Chris

Barron: well, you can talk about it from the gym too.

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, from the gym, it's certainly, uh, um, a necessity, 100%. I mean, if, if you aren't properly doing a movement correctly, or you, you know, you, you aren't experienced enough to be doing something correctly, you not only are you putting yourself in jeopardy or at risk of injury, you're potentially risking, um, hurting someone else, um, damaging equipment, um, property and things like that.

Chris

Barron: So, well, you know, as farmers we're pretty strong, so we just bend over and grab that 100-pound tractor weight and just pick it up and carry it off to one side or whatever, and it's, it's no issue, right?

Chris

Dunne: Yeah. So I mean, definitely just just bending over or carrying something lopsided, uh, is although your body may be used to doing that correctly, if you continuously just, just hunch over or bend over without maybe thinking through movement accurately or correctly, then it could possibly result in long-term damage to your muscles or your, you know, your skeletal structure, things like that.

Chris

Barron: So what about like as farmers, you know, that's one thing that I see with a lot of our clients. We see a lot of hip surgeries or hip replacements. We see a lot of knee replacements. We see a lot of shoulder surgeries, you know, oh, I fell, or I picked this up, or I pulled against this. And, and, you know, just for a lack of a better way to put it, I effed up my shoulder. I did this, I did that. You know, there's a lot of things that are injuries on the farm that are either subtle or major. Well, you know, and then when you start thinking about, you know, breaking a piece of equipment— we're all really careful with our tractors and our tillage and our planters and our harvest equipment, but sometimes we're not as careful with our bodies. So I think that's, that's one of the, the key things, you know.

Any comments on like repetitive lifting or things in your experience from a, from a weight, from a gym, that's things that we need to pay attention to with joints and that kind of thing?

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, absolutely. And just that repetitive work over and over, your body kind of can start to deteriorate. It may not be recovering correctly or properly. And I like to kind of call it getting Ramy with things. I've done it before, either, you know, working on cars or doing different things where you get frustrated or you're in a hurry and you try to grab something, just jerk it and just kind of get the job done as fast as possible. But, you know, not only could that damage your equipment, but it could damage you. So, um, definitely trying to work on, um, effectively— work effectively, um, to stabilize and strengthen your body, not just like your shoulders but your hips, your knees, all of your joints and muscles, um, and try not to overuse or overwork them.

Chris

Barron: Well, let's, let's— you know, I, I kind of had nutrition and sleep next, but let's go to controlled exercise next, so we'll hit on all of these. That was That's kind of a, a small conversation, a little bit around safety. And I just think we have to bring that up because as farmers, we, uh, cut corners once in a while. We try to do things like you said, a fast way or whatever. But let's talk about controlled exercise for a minute. You know, a lot of farmers listening to this, the older ones in particular— maybe not just picking on the older ones because I know some older ones go to the gym every day— but, you know, number one, well, I don't have time. You know, I don't have time to go to the gym, that's, that's stupid, you know, I get all kinds of exercise at the farm, you know, or, you know, I, I don't want to, it hurts and I don't like it and I don't want to do it.

Um, what are some of the benefits? I mean, we've talked about a few of those. What are some of the benefits from coming into the gym and why should, why should we?

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, you don't even necessarily have to get a gym membership to be active or healthier, take better care of yourself. It could be as simple as, you know, going on a 20 to 45 minute walk every morning or every night. It could be, um, just, you know, stretching or doing certain home exercises with body weights. So at the end of the day though, it's, you know, 20 minutes to an hour out of your day that you're—

Chris

Barron: I don't have that much time.

Chris

Dunne: Find it. Yeah, exactly. Everyone can— it's an excuse. Yeah, it is at the end of the day. And, you know, just, just to be blunt, it's, it's an excuse. So everyone can take 20 to 40 to 60 minutes, um, out of their day, 3 to 5 times a week, right? It doesn't even have to necessarily be every single day that you have to get in some sort of activity. It doesn't have to be overly strenuous or rigorous. It— most farmers or most business people aren't going to try to be an Olympic weightlifter, a powerlifter, a bodybuilder, that they have to put their cells through— their body through the ultimate test to be continuously breaking down the muscle. I'm trying to grow and trying to get bigger. It's just about keeping the joints properly lubricated, keeping the joints safe and healthy.

And by doing that, you want to keep your— at least the current muscle mass that you have, if not maybe gain a little bit of strength, not necessarily mass or size. So if you— all of us getting older, if we continue just to go down the, the path where we're going, not exercising, um, having poor, poor habits and things like that, your body will deteriorate, right? Having more of a labor-intensive job, it will deteriorate a lot faster than what the average person will. So you have to make, make the time to take care of yourself.

Chris

Barron: And when we were offline, some of the things we talked about is, you know, you mentioned posture. As one, you know, as, as, you know, and farming is different now for a lot of the younger people that are listening to this. We don't do as much activity. I mean, 90% of the stuff we do is sitting on our ass, literally. I mean, we're sitting in a tractor that's auto-steering, and we're sitting there eating cupcakes and Ho Hos as the tractor drives us across the field with a variable rate prescription. And then we get out and we turn a switch on an auger to fill the planter with seed And then we might in the wintertime, you know, carry some, you know, tools around and do some things and be somewhat active, but there's no consistency to that. And then, you know, talk about like posture. What happens if you're not exercising as we age and we have muscle atrophy?

Chris

Dunne: I mean, yeah, I mean, as, as you continue a sedentary state, the body will start to deteriorate or atrophy or break down. Um, basically, if you're not using it, you will lose it. So you want to continue to force your body— or not necessarily force your body, but to stay active, to at least keep and hold on to what you have right now, if not even improve your quality of life, right? So I mean, outside of farming, a lot of us have other hobbies or things that we like to do, go on vacations, whatnot. But if you would continue to stay in a sedentary state and you will decrease your, your, the amount of, uh, like, activity that you can do or your quality of life. So then that will directly interfere with, um, any, any, any of the hobbies, the amount of time you can spend with your family, um, your spouse, your grandkids.

So it doesn't directly impact you, it impacts everyone else around you as well.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, well, it's that, and then, you know, like you said, just the, the muscle atrophy. As we get older, we're going to lose muscle. And, you know, I'll be 56 this year, and that's one of the things that, you know, I think that why I wanted to do this podcast in the first place is because we all are not getting younger, we all are getting older. And as you get older, you lose muscle mass, you lose your posture, will go away if you don't work on it. Your— all of those things, your strength and all of those things will go away naturally as we age.

Chris

Dunne: Yep, that's correct. And another thing to keep in mind too is bone density as well. So continue to stay active, stay on a healthy diet, and I know we're going to kind of touch base on that a little bit here as well. Um, but also, I mean, bone density can have a direct correlation on the health of your joints. That can be where we see premature deterioration of joints. I, I personally have had a hip replacement at a very young age, so I know a lot about that. Oh, Sure. So with that though, like, you know, when, when the bone density starts to decrease, that could cause excessive wear on joints, cartilage, whatever, as well. Um, you know, excessive breakdown reduce again the quality of life. Um, it can also reduce the amount you can work, work in your business. So that affects your income. That might require you to hire more help or employees as well. So it has a direct impact too.

And then, I mean, if you have to have any kind of surgery to repair any, any, any kind of injuries or, or think anything like that, then that's that much more time off that you have away from your, your farm or your business and everything else.

Chris

Barron: So, so let's, let's carry this now into what's probably the most important part of the, of the discussion here now, which is nutrition. Okay, so You know, we said that offline here a minute ago, you know, we're going to talk about exercise and, and the importance of keeping the most important piece of equipment on the farm functioning well. Well, part of the functioning is nutrition, and I'm going to throw a couple things out there and then you, you can sideswipe me or, or add to this. But we eat a lot of refined foods, as you know, and I'm not just picking on farmers, I'm picking on everybody in, in the society. You look at a picture of people in 1970 doing anything. I don't care if they're watching the, you know, a rocket takeoff, or if they're standing on a beach, or if they're just standing and it's a picture of a bunch of people.

And then look at a bunch of people, a picture of a bunch of people now, and a high percentage of us are obese and overweight. And with all love and respect, that's just a fact, okay? There's a reason that's happening. And if you look at the amount of refined foods that we eat instead of eating whole foods like, you know, I mean, good quality meat, good quality vegetables, and not Twizzlers probably, you know. And Twizzlers is probably, you know, that I thought— used to think that was a food group, you know. I mean, I ate so many of them, I think my, my skin was red some of the time. So, you know, back to the nutrition then.

I mean, if that's 80% of the thing and we're eating all these refined foods Um, what do you, what do you see to get results in the gym if, if somebody's coming in eating sugar all the time and bread and all that kind of stuff, all those high, high glycemic carbohydrates? What's that do? You know, do you get anything out of the gym when you're just eating all that crap?

Chris

Dunne: Maybe a limited amount.

Chris

Barron: Okay.

Chris

Dunne: A lot of people have the, the stigma that you can outwork a bad diet. Oh, I'll that you'll hear people say, oh man, I really just tied one over this weekend. I, I need to get back to the gym on Monday and hit it hard. Well, truth be told, if you have an excess of 2, 3, 5,000 calories over the weekend, that's probably the amount of calories you're going to burn in the gym in a week, right? Let alone, you know, 2 days. So it's, it's really important to make sure that you're putting in good quality food into your body. I mean, in my, in my personal opinion, if you want to, you know, enjoy a meal here and there by all means, go for it. Just don't make it a habit.

Putting in refined sugars or processed foods and things like that, um, any of these convenience foods is what I usually call them, um, at the end of the day, it's just poor quality foods that your body is just going to blow through because it is a higher glycemic or faster digesting carbohydrate, or any, any kind of food like that is just going to be processed a lot faster, is going to increase your insulin sensitivity if you're a diabetic or have any other precon— uh, any other medical conditions such as hypertension, high blood pressure, it could spike that. Um, let alone if a lot of those processed foods are higher in sodium, again increasing blood pressure, um, or also are higher in fats. So your body basically stores extra storage of fats. Um, and it's just all around, it's just—

Chris

Barron: well, there— and there's a difference in sodium too. You talked about like You know, like when you eat clean, in other words, you're eating a lot of vegetables and you're eating a lot of good, good meat, you know, steak and pork and chicken and whatever. I, I could live on— pretty much live on steak. But you know, if you're eating all those good quality meats and you're eating a lot of vegetables, you actually need the salt though, right?

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, absolutely. So if, if you were in, you know, maybe a state where you're hyperactive, where you are working out vigorously, you have a great healthy nutritious diet, you're very well hydrated, your body is going to require sodium. Um, so the sodium is going to shuttle most of the nutrients and water into your muscle cells and throughout your body to help with recovery, nutrient portioning, and things like that. So sodium is actually incredibly good for you as long as your diet, your hydration, and, um, your activity level is in check.

Chris

Barron: Unless you're eating a lot of salt with a bunch of refined— yes, carbohydrates, and, and a bunch of fat with it. So you get— so, so you eat pancakes, a big stack of pancakes with a whole pile of freaking syrup all over it, and then you have bacon with it. Yeah, as opposed to if you have you know, sit down and eat 4 eggs and some, some clean, good quality bacon— not junk bacon, but good quality bacon— and keep the carbohydrates out of it, you just, you just consume some pretty good fat and some pretty good protein, and then maybe throw in some carbohydrates a little later. I mean, there are some timing things to a lot of that too, isn't there?

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, there definitely is. And, and so, I mean, and I know, Chris, you're really big on keto. As well. So I mean, and even just making sure if you do want carbohydrates, try to stay with the pancakes. I mean, maybe, maybe a good quality potato or a sweet potato or a yam that's a little bit slower digesting carbohydrate would be fine.

Chris

Barron: But so that's different than the fries at McDonald's. Most definitely.

Chris

Dunne: Try to avoid the deep frying them and cooking them in grease. But also there's something to be said about trying to have a more of a natural carb source, something that isn't refined sugar or ultra-processed, something that's maybe more natural and abundant that you can get from the earth versus something that may have been manufactured in a plant.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, and that's the thing too, you know, we're not trying to preach anything here, but it does come down to there is no reason you can't go on YouTube and look up nutrition, and I don't care if it's keto or if it's, if it's vegan or if it's Paleo or if it's, if it's carnivore. I'm kind of a carnivore. I could just live on meat all the time. But, you know, that's, that's something that there's no excuse for us not to educate ourselves on nutrition when, you know, we look at the amount of diet diabetics that there are, and I guarantee you a high percentage of the people listening to this either are or will become diabetic if they don't fix this nutrition thing.

And the only reason I want to do this is because I care about everybody that listens to this, and I don't want a majority of those people becoming diabetic because they're not paying attention to what they're eating, you know. And it doesn't mean that if I want to have a Twizzlers, I'll have one, but it also doesn't mean that I'm going to eat a bag of Twizzlers every single night either. So, right? I mean, that's kind of what your message is, isn't it?

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, absolutely. And the, the biggest thing to considered too is you don't have to stick to one particular diet, or don't get sucked into any kind of fad diet. At the end of the day, they— all of the diets or all the structured nutrition plans are going to work as long as you allow it to, to work. So you have to maybe either experiment with the different types of eating habits or nutrition plans or diets, whatever you want to call it, and see which one works best for you, which one's most sustainable, right? You don't feel— you don't want to just jump into, into something headfirst, all out, and do something super, super restrictive if you're not used to it, because a lot of times that it is just a recipe for disaster and it can cause someone to spiral out of control.

I mean, myself, for being an example, I've, I've done a lot of the different diets or, you know, fad diets and things like that. And I kind of found out what works best for me and what I enjoy. Um, and I mean, to all respect to any, any kind of a nutrition plan out there whatsoever, but they're all fantastic in their own means. So you just have to find what works best for you, something that you can adhere to. It's, it's a lifestyle adjustment, but it shouldn't be a lifestyle limitation.

Chris

Barron: Yeah.

Chris

Dunne: So just make sure that you can stick to it accordingly. You do give yourself maybe a little bit of a break or allowance here and there, but plan accordingly. Don't let it derail you completely or throw you off of, you know, let a holiday or vacation throw you off for a whole week, a month. A month turns into a year, right? Year turns into 5 years, right? You're just starting all over again.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, well, and that's a good point because these, you know, there's a lot of, um, marketing too whether it's a food company or whether it's a diet or whatever it is, that market company—

Chris

Dunne: what's that? Or a supplement?

Chris

Barron: Yeah, yeah. I mean, everybody's trying to sell shit basically is what it comes down to. And it's so— it's— we got to be careful and we get like— I take it exactly what you said. We got to do what works for us and we got to do what's sustainable for us. And then we also need to use some self-control and be disciplined, right? The discipline is a key part. You know, and it is hard. I get it. You wake up in the morning and you see an IHOP commercial on there and those pancakes look damn good, you know, and you feel like you need to eat them. But you need to feel or figure out a way to, to get satiety or to get full on real food. And, and that's, you know, and like you said, that's different for everybody. What is real food to one person is going to be a different kind of food for another person probably too.

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, exactly. And there's a saying that I really like, it's called discipline over motivation. You know, day in and day out, we're not— you know, it's hard to stay motivated to stick with a certain diet or workout regimen or maintenance routine or whatever it might be, but you have to be dedicated to taking care of that piece of equipment. You have to be dedicated to take care of yourself. Taking care of your family, and, and just dedicated to improving all, all around.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, and that's, that's great. Um, let's, let's move on to sleep for just a minute. Um, I've been wearing one of these, um, Alyssa got me an Oura Ring, so like I can watch my sleep. And now I think I was telling you in the gym the other day, like I, I wake up to and then I look at the report on my phone to see if I slept good, then I can decide how I feel. So, so you got to be careful on, on, you know, like measuring too much or, or getting too, you know, anal retentive on how you're managing that. But I think as, as farmers and as, as entrepreneurs and business people, sometimes we don't get enough sleep. Um, any comments on, on that?

Chris

Dunne: I think as a society in general, we all lack the discipline to allow ourselves to sleep. I know for me personally it's difficult to shut down. I get very distracted in the morning or in the evening by social media, TV, trying to wind down at the end of the day after a long day. No matter what it is, either way, it's really important. Obviously, we all know that we should get 8 hours of sleep, but I think the American average is probably somewhere between 4 and 6. So yeah, so it's, it's something that we, we can all use some have— there's an opportunity for improvement for all of us, increasing the quality of sleep, um, and the amount that we sleep. Yeah, trying to limit electronics usage 1 to 2 hours before bed because the blue light— yeah, the blue lights that's emitted from it can, can disrupt your quality of sleep.

Um, you know, a lot, a lot of the eye doctors offer like blue light, um, films that go on glasses. I have it for myself. Um, and so that's, that's another thing that can be very helpful for improving your quality of sleep. Too. So just overall, um, doing that. So another thing that I feel like, uh, that people do a little bit too much on that affect— directly affects your sleep is too much caffeine, which I'm also guilty of.

Chris

Barron: Yeah. So, but that's different for everybody, isn't it? Because I can drink— I could drink 2 Diet Mountain Dews and go to sleep in like 2 minutes. I could— I mean, Alyssa gives me a bad time. I can sleep standing up. Yeah, probably. So is that I mean, is that just an individual thing, or do you think it's—

Chris

Dunne: I truly believe it's individual. I mean, I have friends that can't tolerate more than 50 milligrams of caffeine in a day, and for me, I can get 1,000 and be fine. Yeah, and that's not an exaggeration whatsoever, but everyone is a little bit different. I, I mean, there's a good thing to maybe kind of try to consider depending on when your bedtime is, but, um, I would say try to limit any kind of caffeine consumption after noon or after lunch. Um, you know, that, that might be a little bit difficult to try to get through the afternoon slump, um, that— or the so-called something.

Chris

Barron: So those, those 3 Dr. Peppers that are, you know, full of sugar are back to the refined. But Dr. Pepper doesn't have, um, caffeine. I don't think— does— I probably should have said Pepsi or Coke, I guess.

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, I know I've never really been a Dr. Pepper fan, but yeah, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, you know, the— or like even something that like one of my uncles that used to— that does a lot of farming. When I was a kid, I remember he would always have a cooler full of Diet Pepsi with him, and it was my job at what— as, you know, by the time I could walk, to have to go climb up in the tractor, climb with the combine, and take all the cans out of the, out of the, out of the equipment. And then I could take them back to your dentist center and cash. Gotcha.

Chris

Barron: When you're making money, I was making money off of it.

Chris

Dunne: Yeah. But also, I mean, that's, that's just such a terrible habit. I mean, if you're, if you're feeling— I feel like you're dragging um, and you need caffeine, it might just be a sign for your body they need more water, they need hydration, you need fluid in general. So you don't necessarily need to jam more caffeine in your body, which is going to have a direct impact on, you know, your quality of sleep and things like that. Try to just stay hydrated and just drink more water in general.

Chris

Barron: Um, that leads me— I mean, we're kind of bouncing around between sleep and nutrition here with this question, but, you know, water, it's like, you know, well, you need to drink 8 glasses. And I did that. I did 75 Hard, which Alyssa and I are gonna do a podcast later on this— on that program. But you had to drink a gallon of water for 75 days. My biggest problem with a gallon of water was, first of all, I, you know, I was trying to quit, not to ever drink water prior to having to drink a gallon a day. So it took me a while to get used to that. And I don't think that was super healthy because I went from like not drinking any water to drinking a gallon. But then I also noticed that I'd get up and pee in the middle of the night about 5 times because I was so hydrated. Is there a point where you get too hydrated?

Chris

Dunne: Uh, I mean, I would say in my opinion no, but I mean, that would be probably more of a question for a medical professional.

Chris

Barron: So, well, so it's probably drinking the water too late in the day too, you know, like you said start shutting and start turning it off 3 hours before you go to bed so you get done peeing sooner, I guess.

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, that. And, and I know there are some— and I haven't really looked too closely into this— but there are some studies that show that like if you are overly hydrated, and this is more of an extreme circumstance, but you could start flushing out nutrients.

Chris

Barron: Like, well, that's where the salt comes in, you know. If you're drinking a gallon of water a day, you probably need to be salting all your food.

Chris

Dunne: Yep. The salt. So the sodium or the salt is going to bring in more water and fluid into your body and hold it there versus just flush it right out.

Chris

Barron: Right. So, but if you're, if you're not getting enough water, a lot of times you get hungry too. And so people eat when they're actually dehydrated, right? Absolutely. You know, that's a huge deal too.

Chris

Dunne: Yep. That's something that's very common.

Chris

Barron: Right.

Chris

Dunne: So, or even if you, if you try to curb hunger cravings, you can just try gua zhong some water as well to kind of suppress that.

Chris

Barron: Exactly. Yeah. Uh, hey, that brings me one other thing. And we, we were bouncing back. I forgot to ask about, um, like intermittent fasting, you know, that's something. And if, if people think that this is crazy, then look it up because it's something that's been interesting for me to study lately is, is when, you know, basically you eat dinner at whatever time, 5, 6, 7, and then you basically just don't eat again until like noon or whatever. You just basically Skip breakfast. And then there's different ways of doing it. You can get up and eat breakfast and eat lunch and then maybe not eat again until breakfast the next day. And, you know, so breakfast is, is basically breaking the fast. That's what breakfast is. And years ago, you know, our grandpas and grandmas used to do 3 meals a day. Well, now we snack all the freaking time.

We just have shit to eat all the time, always with us. You got a snack, you know, you— we have these meetings and it's like, you got to have snack, you gotta have breakfast, and then you gotta have snacks at 10 o'clock. Everybody's gonna have cookies. Or whatever, you know. And then, then you have lunch, and then you got to have cookies and more, more crap brought in, you know, in the afternoon, and chips and all that kind of stuff. And right before— when then we're going to go to dinner, you know, like you used to hear, you know, don't eat between meals, it'll spoil your, your appetite or whatever. I mean, you know, as a, as a bodybuilder, as a weightlifter, I mean, what's your opinion? Is it, is it— do we need 6 meals a day, or are we better off to to have, you know, a fast between those meals, you know, what— which is— what's your opinion on that?

Chris

Dunne: I feel like it's 100% dependent on your personal goals and what works for you. So I mean, you, you hit the nail on the head. Like, intermittent fasting can be phenomenal. And actually, so I did a pretty elaborate research article on it, uh, when I was going to college, actually, for one of my nutrition classes, um, where I had some great people that I interviewed. So, um, and more and more in the sports performance industry. Um, but so basically intermittent fasting, just like what Chris was saying, is you, you have a— you set— have a set feeding window, basically. So let's say for just for example, I wake up at 5, 6 AM, I may not eat until maybe 12 o'clock or 1. So, and then I would have this feeding window, and on average is about 6 to 8 hours a day you have this feeding window.

So if you start— have your first meal meal at 12 o'clock, you can eat basically until 7 or 8 o'clock at night, maybe 6 to 8 o'clock at night if it's a 6 to 8 hour feeding window. So basically what that's doing is just limiting the amount of calories that you can eat in that extended period of time. And so for lack of better words, unless you eat like a complete asshole, um, you're probably not going to be able to put in enough calories to exceed the amount of calories that your body needs in a day to gain weight. So basically it's just, it's just limiting the amount of calories that you can eat because you have a limited amount of time to eat in the day. Um, it is very, very conducive to weight loss in general. Pairing it up with, you know, let's say the, the paleo diet, or, um, with what you guys do with more keto side, I mean, you could definitely see some drastic changes.

And you might be able to see some changes fast. Again, it's just really important to remember, make sure it's sustainable. Yeah. Make sure you're not going too extreme. Right. Otherwise it's kind of a recipe for disaster again. But no, I mean, intermittent fasting rather is— I think it's fantastic. I've toyed around with it for a little bit. For me, it's not for me. My wife could probably attest to that. I do get pretty hangry in the mornings if I—

Chris

Barron: if I— you're grumpy.

Chris

Dunne: Oh man, I'm grumpy. Yeah, um, absolutely. But I mean, I— again, me being a competitive bodybuilder, I'm used to eating 6 meals a day, uh, every 2.5 to 3 hours.

Chris

Barron: So, but that keeps your insulin level up though, right? And so, you know, we're going to get to longevity later on here, and the average person listening to this probably needs to be keeping their insulin level down, don't they? Yeah.

Chris

Dunne: And, and according to my blood test, my insulin levels are fine.

Chris

Barron: So that's back to the individual.

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, as of now.

Chris

Barron: And you're 32 years old?

Chris

Dunne: 32. So that, that's as of now. Now, as far as the long-term effects, we don't know. So, but I, as far as like from the research I've done in the individuals I've talked to, intermittent fasting is phenomenal for, um, you know, the average gym goer, the average individual that doesn't even go to the gym. Now when it comes to a high-level athlete, which one of the people that I interviewed for does train professional athletes, from football players, baseball players, basketball players, um, they do not recommend it, um, just because the body does somewhat require a good, you know, partitioning of nutrients throughout the whole day to reduce, you know, the possibility of muscle atrophy and degeneration, things like that. But that's in a high-level performing athlete, right, that's going to need an excessive amount of calories in a day.

Um, there, there are other, there are other natural bodybuilders, um, that I've came across in contact with that love intermittent fasting. So, and again, just like what Chris and I have been preaching all along is it is all individualized. It's whatever works best for you. I mean, I say if you, if you question, if it sounds interesting, try it for a week, try it for 2 weeks, you know, if, if it's something doable.

Chris

Barron: I mean, it is a great way to, to, um, calorie restrict though without, without, you know, because for a lot of people it's not that hard to skip breakfast. And you know, because you wake up not that— most people anyway wake up not that much hungry anyway. So if you can get to noon or 1 o'clock and have your first meal and then finish your last meal like you said in that feeding window, finish that around 6 o'clock or something, you're going to have a good 16 or 18 hours of fast. And I guess from the research I've done, unless you, you've seen something different, but it probably the benefit is more so for older people probably, and especially people who need to lose some, lose a few pounds, right?

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, that, and it's, it's, there's also studies that say how great or how beneficial it is for digestive health too. If you're not jamming your body full of calories for food all the time. Yeah, because the digestive system would break, allows it to clean out a little bit, right? You know, you might be more regular with your bowel movements as well, right? Um, especially with individuals with irritable bowel syndrome too, um, you know. And so it— the fasting doesn't mean that you can't— that you have to restrict absolutely everything. You can drink water, um, and coffee. You can have black coffee, right?

Chris

Barron: You're just not supposed to put a bunch of sugary crap in with it.

Chris

Dunne: No creamers, right? Don't do your ghee butter or your butter or anything like that, right? Um, and things like that. But so black coffee, um, there are some people that might tote the line and add like a, a BCAA or an EAA product, which are just like amino acids. I still think even though the label says there's no calories in it, the body still processes the artificial sweeteners as it would sugar. Um, they still kind of process the amino acids as it would a protein because amino acids are somewhat kind of a variation of a broken down protein. So although the label says no calories, it's still going to kind of process it. And so it kind of, in my opinion, and some people may argue, um, I feel like it's kind of taking you out of that fasted state.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, awesome. Well, and we can come, we can bounce around on that stuff, but one of the things that, one of the, the last, towards the last things that I wanted to hit on with you is, um, with a lot of our listeners, um, whether they're older or younger It's— they have kids, they have grandkids, they have family. We farm and we work hard and we're entrepreneurs and we do things in business that we do because of our family and because we want to be around with them. That's why we do what we do, most of us anyway. And so, you know, if we're not taking care of the most important piece of equipment, which is essentially our body, longevity does become an issue. And it, you know, and so like I said, I'm turning 56 this year. I think about You know, and if that's the case, I'm, you know, I'm in it for health, right?

I want to try to be healthier and I want our clients to be healthier because I, you know, I know how easy it is to eat junky, crappy food all the time and not get enough sleep and not exercise because we're quote unquote too busy, which is an excuse. So, you know, that's the thing that's going to impact our longevity and we won't be around as long as we're going to want to be. Um, any comments on, on the longevity part of it?

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, um, you're gonna die.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, we all are, right?

Chris

Dunne: As simple as that. So do you want to die earlier or do you want to die later? Do you want to spend more time with your family or do you want to leave them in a sense of, or a state of shock, um, disbelief, unprepared? So it kind of comes down to that. And that's something that's kind of even hit me really hard. I don't have a family I'm just married, um, but I want to be around for my wife. I don't want— I mean, me being a business owner, I don't want her to have to take over full responsibilities of my business, nor would, uh, you guys as farmers want someone else to try to take care of, of, of your entire operation. Um, you also don't want to leave someone— you know, we, we want to try to put it off or deny, deny and say, oh, it'll be fine, it won't happen me, it's, it's okay. But odds are a lot of us aren't prepared to go right now, or in 20 years, let alone right now.

Chris

Barron: Well, you're never, you're never ready. And you brought something up offline too, is like the quality of life too. So like, if you eat like crap your whole life, your life's going to be shorter. And then you get to the end and you may live an extra 5 years or 10 years, and then— but at what quality? You know, you, you've got joints that are all screwed up, your posture is all screwed up, you don't feel that good, you're carrying an extra 50 pounds around. I mean, that's the thing too, you know, it's crazy. You know, this— during the course of the winter, I took 33 pounds off, and the other day I grabbed two 2 15-pound weights and started walking around for a little bit, just imagine if I was still carrying that. You know, we carry all this extra weight throughout the course of our life that continues to grow for a lot of us, right?

And it's like, that's, that's impacting longevity too, because it's, you're that much harder on joints and all that kind of stuff. Any, any other comments on that?

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, not just your joints but your organs too. I mean, right, with that excess of body fat or the weight in general, that's more blood that your, your heart has to pump through your body. So it's like excessive stress on that. And then that, you know, with, with, uh, that excessive stress in your heart, you know, cause it to grow and enlarge, things like that too. So it's overall, it's not just because it grows doesn't mean it's healthier, right? It's not healthy when your organs grow. Yeah, no, not, not at all. So I mean, and I was, I was saying to Chris, I mean, you'll see these, these old farmers or the old boys or whatever you want to call them, then they'll, they'll be hopping out of their tractor or their truck at the grocery store and they'll be using a cane or hobbling along. Well, I got a bum hip or I got a bum knee, right?

Um, they're all hunched over, um, from years and years of just strenuous activity, but not just strenuous but repetitive activity. So again, just improving that quality of life, just trying to get up, get moving moving, no matter if it's lightweight lifting, cardiovascular exercise, walking, cycling, you know, biking, things like that. Just anything you can do to just try to get moving.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, walking's probably, like I said, probably about the best thing for a lot of people. But, um, what about one thing we didn't hit on in the nutrition? I keep coming back to that one. I still think that's 80% of the battle though, right? And, um, you know, I said I have this like Oura Ring where I'm like tracking my sleep and I've noticed when— if I drink alcohol and then I look at like my deep sleep, because you have deep sleep and you have REM, what's the other one? There's, there's like 3 different levels of it. The deep sleep is the, is the biggest and most reparative. That's when you're repairing, your body's like fixing muscle and fixing the breakdown stuff. And I don't get hardly any of that when I've had some alcohol. And that's one thing that when I do some research on that, that's kind of the case for all of us, you know.

And I'm not saying, well, don't drink alcohol, because I'm gonna have a beer once in a while or whatever, have a couple of them. But it's like, at least be aware of that, you know. Because I was, you know, that it was pretty common for me a year, a couple years ago, to have 2 or 3 every single night. Well, that really starts screwing with your sleep and you don't even know Yeah, absolutely.

Chris

Dunne: And aside from just repairing your body and getting good quality sleep, it kind of detox— detoxes your brain as well. Uh, the REM sleep does, right? So the less you detox your brain, the more stress you, you could, you know, produce and things like that. The less rest, more restless you are at night. Um, and just more, even more how, how much you can just change your overall attitude, um, and how you present yourself. You can be a lot— I mean, we all know the importance of sleep, as we've already discussed, but lack of sleep or lack of even REM sleep, um, can make you more irritable, less cognitively aware. Um, it could just overall affect your quality of life, but your performance in your day-to-day operations and tasks.

Chris

Barron: Yeah. And like you said, I think everybody is different, but you know, my, my nightly routine, um, not too long ago was right before I go to bed, I'd have about 6 Twizzlers, you know, I'd pull them up, I'd have those, and then I'd have some ice cream and some popcorn or something. And then I felt like I could sleep good because I had a full stomach, you know. And then you start monitoring that stuff, you know, like with an Oura Ring or whatever, and looking at your sleep, and it's like, well, maybe, maybe what I thought is not right, you know. And it's, and it's, you know, we can rationalize anything in our minds. It's like, well, this isn't bothering me too much, and, you know, I'm not gonna do that shit, screw that, you know.

And it's— and then when you realize, you know, you start monitoring stuff, or, you know, I always tell people that in business, it's like, you know, you can't fix what you don't measure. You know, you can't change what you don't measure. And so I think a lot of times, you know, it's, it's just like you at the gym. I'm pretty sure you probably know how much you lift in certain exercises and you pay attention, right?

Chris

Dunne: I do. I track it.

Chris

Barron: Yeah. So if you don't— but if you don't track it, how do you know what your gains are?

Chris

Dunne: Uh, you guess.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, exactly. And so that's, that's kind of really the point. But yeah, but you know, and I, and I don't know, I think we've covered a lot of stuff. Is there anything, you know, as an observation, as a gym owner, as somebody that sees a lot of people at different health levels and different things, that, that you would, you know, tell these listeners as we wrap up to, to pay attention to or think through?

Chris

Dunne: There's, there's a lot I could say, but two things I would kind of try to simplify it down to, For one thing, don't overcomplicate it. That's the biggest thing I see people try to do when they come into a gym. And specifically, they're like, all right, I need to get my, my membership, I need to get all the supplements, I need to do this, I do need to do that. Like, just slow it down a little bit. You're starting your routine, get used to it. Do the, you know, just stick with the basics. Just make it very easy for you, very regimented. So it's easy for you to adhere to. Um, so if it's easy for you to adhere to, that's where you can get the most success. Um, number 2 is there's a lot of information on the internet. A lot of it's fantastic, a lot of it's not fantastic.

Chris

Barron: Yeah.

Chris

Dunne: Uh, just again, stick with things tried and true, credible sources. You know, you don't want to go on Joe Schmo's blog or YouTube channel that has like two views on it and just try to do their, their crash diet plan and, and this and that, super restrictive calories or whatever it is. Because I mean, food is fuel. So yeah, definitely just try to, try to simplify it and try to base every— anything that you do, any research that you do, off of credible sources that, you know, you can find, you know, Journal of Medicine research articles on and things like that on there. And that's easy.

Chris

Barron: So awesome. That sounds good. Well, is there anything else I— that we need to hit on? I think so. We hit on, you know, kind of safety and paying attention to, you know, what you do or what we all do. Um, you know, we hit on sleep and controlled exercise and longevity and the why behind all that. And I think the other big thing is just understanding that the nutrition is 80% of the battle. What we put in our mouth is, is the biggest part. Because some people are listening to this, I'm not going to the gym, so You know, but back to your, you know, go for a walk, stretch, you know, do some push-ups in the, in the living room in the morning or at night or whatever, or sit on an exercise ball when you watch TV instead of laying flat on the couch maybe, or something like that.

Chris

Dunne: Or even, you know, if you're sitting in your equipment for an extended period of time, either, either at planting season, harvest, or whatnot, try to, try to stop frequently, get out, stretch your legs, walk around, get a little bit of activity.

Chris

Barron: You'll probably drink a gallon of water every day. You gotta get out and pee all the time.

Chris

Dunne: So you have to go, yeah, so stop in the middle of the field to water it. Um, so, but I mean, not only will, you know, maybe you'll have to get out and use the restroom, but not, not only will that make you feel better, probably make you more alert, um, you probably won't be as tired if you're up moving and allow yourself to walk around, move around a little bit, right? It'll also probably make it so you're not sore. So the more you move your joints, you know, if you allow your joints to get stiff and sore, they're going to stay stiff and sore.

Chris

Barron: Oh, you get inflammation and it doesn't go away. Exactly. Yeah, awesome. Hey, Chris, uh, Chris Dunn, the owner and entrepreneur of Iowa Strength, 8-year owner of the gym. Congratulations on the success so far, and I look forward to watching you grow the business more and more. And thank you for being here.

Chris

Dunne: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Chris

Barron: You bet. Again, everybody, hopefully you got something out of this. We want you to, to get some value and and to, uh, take care of that most important piece of equipment on the farm, which is you. So with that, everybody, thanks for listening. We'll catch you again next time on the Ag View Pitch.